This paper studies the effects of oil rent on development using a unique panel dataset describing worldwide oil discoveries and extractions. First, we revisit the so-called curse of oil, which contends that oil rent hinders economic development. Exploiting cross-country variations in the timing...

We show that previous results from the resource curse literature are primarily driven by collapsing in oil prices since the mid-1980s. Exploiting cross-country variations in the size of initial oil endowments and the timing of oil discoveries, we find that there is a stable positive relationship...

This paper examines the effect of oil abundance on political violence. First, we revisit one of the main empirical findings of the civil conflict literature that oil abundance causes civil war. Using a unique panel dataset describing worldwide oil discoveries and extractions, we show that simply...